Forward Promise aims to promote opportunities for boys and young men of color to heal, grow, and thrive in the face of chronic stress and trauma. Empowerment Projects seeks to strengthen organizations that provide culturally relevant healing responses to trauma, and can partner with the youth-serving systems that touch boys and young men of color to advance new practices to prevent further traumatization. In doing so, it is important that the organizations use the stories of boys and young men of color’s resilience and healing to promote and inform their work, and that boys and young men of color themselves are the ones telling those stories. Forward Promise seeks to elevate the promising practices of Empowerment Projects grantees to advance a greater understanding of what it means for boys and young men of color to heal, grow, and thrive. Equipped with this understanding, the Foundation hopes that other youth-serving organizations and systems can then identify and modify their policies and practices that, intentionally or not, serve as barriers to the health and success of boys and young men of color.

Amount: A total of up to nine awards will be made, including: up to six grants that range up to $450,000 per grantee, and up to three grants that range up to $150,000 per grantee. The grant duration is for two years.

Eligibility: Organizations that are located in the United States or its territories. Preference will be given to applicants that are either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundations or Type III supporting organizations.

The applicant must have the administrative and financial capacity to manage an award of the size being requested. This includes proper governance, sufficient staffing, and strong policies, procedures, and internal controls. For consideration for grants in the amount of $450,000, this would generally indicate an annual operating budget of $1.2 million or more at the time of proposal submission. Applicants seeking grants in the amount of $150,000 would generally be expected to have an organizational budget of at least $500,000 annually at the time of proposal submission. Organizations with a budget of over $1 million will be considered only in the $450,000 category.